Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

506

CLASSICAL TOUR

Ch. XV.

hills that diminish in size and elevation as they
are more distant from the parent mountains.
The road from Novi to Pavia presents on the
right many of these eminences, resembling the
hills of Surry, and like them adorned with trees,
churches, villas, and castles.
As we approached the Po we found the roads
deep and sandy; the river, though nearly con-
fined by the dry ness of the season to the middle
of its channel, is yet a m ijestic stream ; we passed
it on a flying bridge, and admired its banks as
we glided across. As they are low, they are
susceptible of one species of ornament only, and
that consists of groves of forest trees that shade
its margin, and as they hang over it and some-
times bathe their branches in its waves, enliven
it by the reflection of their thick and verdant
foliage. Among these trees the poplar is now, as
it was anciently, predominant; and by its height
and spreading form, adds considerably to the
beauty of the scenery.
Rami caput utabraveie virentes
Heliadum, totisque fluunt electra capillis.
Claudian.
The fable of Phaeton, so prettily told by Ovid,
and so amusing to boyish fancy, naturally occurs
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